


Berry in the book

by Steangine



Series: Blueberry Birthday [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Ichigo's birthday, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 22:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15301512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steangine/pseuds/Steangine
Summary: Grimmjow is an arrancar and he doesn't know a thing about birthday presents. Yet, he needs to find one for Ichigo's birthday.





	Berry in the book

**Author's Note:**

> Karma is a character from the manga Assassination Classroom.

They formed a strange duo. A 2-meters tall, muscular man with neat moustache walking behind a man whose bizarre light blue hair made him stand up in the crowd like a lighthouse in the night. Many girls turned to have a better look: some tried to hide the glances, while others openly ogled at him. But Grimmjow was too involved in his task that he barely knew there were humans around him.

“Think like Ichigo.” Tessai whispered at him. “You’re a high schooler at the end of his third year, hero of the great war against the Quincies. What would you like for your birthday?”

Grimmjow was an arrancar whose only memory of his mortal life he managed to recall up to that moment was the instant right before his death; he lived wandering in Hueco Mundo and hunting prays, then became an Espada, lost all his fraccions, went against Aizen to kill Ichigo and ended up becoming the boyfriend of the guy he wanted to eradicate from existence. He had no fucking idea what a teenage who knew both school and war could desire.

“…c-choco–“

“Not chocolate. That’s too obvious.”

“Then… a pencil. He uses many to do his homework.”

“You’re far, but on the right tracks. Keep going, think about Ichigo! Recall what you saw of him.”

Grimmjow thought about Ichigo. They fought – but he didn’t need a sword. He tried to think about him as a human and not as a shinigami. He usually hung out with his friends, talked a lot about them – he couldn’t buy friends. When they were alone Ichigo did his homework while Grimmjow read some manga; or they watched a movie, even if they had never reached the end of one without their hands slipping into each other’s clothes and…

“Sex.”

“Kinda stranding, but if he likes certain toys, it could do.”

Grimmjow blocked the thought of them on Ichigo’s bed and focused on the rest of the room. There was a guitar, but Ichigo had never learnt how to play it properly, too many distractions and too many hollows.

“Boots. Fighting in slippers looks uncomfortable.”

“You cannot change the shinigami’s uniform. It’s an institution.”

“But if everyone fucking dresses as they please.”

“Focus on your goal.”

He thought again about human Ichigo, not the shinigami. Shinigami like his father.

“I cannot eliminate his father, but maybe blocking him in Hueco Mundo for a while would make him happy.”

Tessai shook his head. “I can’t see that as a proper present. Not for birthday.”

“Then… punching that Ishida he always argues with.”

“They’re friends, after all.”

“That sounds like a no.”

Tessai nodded. “Yes, that’s a no.”

Grimmjow put a hand into his hair and turned around. He had no idea what Ichigo could like for his birthday. Instead of being subtle, Grimmjow asked him directly and received a “If you’ll come to the secret birthday party my family and friends weren’t able to keep secret for me, that would be a nice present.” Then Ichigo blushed and that awakened Grimmjow’s instincts; they forgot about the birthday party and had sex. What did he have to do? Wrapping himself with a red ribbon?

“I can put a ribbon on me. He said I’ll be a nice present.”

“Leave that for the private.”

“Huh?” Grimmjow frowned. “What do you mean?”

“We’ll talk about how humans play in bed another time.” Tessai shook his hand as if he was shooing away an invisible fly. “You haven’t much time left.”

“I know!” Grimmjow stared at each shop. Clothes, no. Food, no. Flowers, no. “He has a lot of manga, maybe…” He thought about his shelf, all the manga that Grimmjow still had to read and the books next to them; he hadn’t read any of them because Ichigo warned he didn’t want them to be ruined and Grimmjow felt his eyes on him in the very moment he grabbed one – and he was sure Ichigo was deep in the contemplation of his homework. “…he has these books at home. A lot of them. I think he likes them, they’re all from the same author.”

“Oh, good! Do you remember the name?”

“Shake… something.”

“That’s a beginning. We’ll go to the book shop.”

Grimmjow learnt fast what there was to know about the human world. However, despite he was getting the hang of it, he still managed to be amazed by the huge quantity of same stuff stuffed in shops. Going from a place where there was nothing but sand to one where you could have everything you needed was surely a huge breakthrough.

That book shop was like Ichigo’s shelf replicated so many times to fill the whole place.

“Good afternoon miss.” Tessai took a step forward; a man of two meters who scared the tiny clerk with his solemn greeting. “We’re looking for a writer who goes by the name of Shake.”

“Shake…?” Her voice was shaking. “Do you mean Shakespeare?”

Something clicked inside Grimmjow’s memory. “It’s him.”

The girl found Grimmjow attractive, but his frown scared her as much as it did Tessai’s height. “We have all authors divided by letters. It’s easy to find…” Her voice was a little more than a chirp.

“Thank you very much!” Tessai bowed and the girl startled.

Grimmjow was already looking for the name. “How many books are there here?” He snorted. “Goddammit.” When he spotted the name _Shakespeare_ , he dashed to the shelf and grabbed the first book. “Ah, he has this one. And this one too.”

Tessai was behind them and nodded at every book Grimmjow checked.

“He has this one. And this one. This one…” Grimmjow took a look at the covers. “He has every single book!!! Does he have a crush on this guy? Who the fuck is he?”

“There’s usually a biography in the books.”

Grimmjow opened one random and looked for the information. “He died 400 years ago! You can’t have a crush on a dead person!”

Tessai crossed his arms. “Uhm, not to be a nitpicker, but you are basically dead for a human.”

“I haven’t asked for your shitty remark.” Grimmjow leafed through the pages of many books. “And there’s only one image of him. He was ugly!” What if, an evil voice whispered inside his head, he was as ugly as that writer and Kurosaki only liked him for that? He turned to Tessai. “We don’t look alike, do we?” He pointed at his own face first, then at Shakespeare’s image and then back at himself.

“I can assure you, you don’t have the slightest resemblance with this Shake-guy.”

Grimmjow sighed in relief; that thought now seemed really silly. But he wasn’t much relieved as he realized he was back at the starting point with his quest for Ichigo’s present. His gaze wandered on the covers of the books, as if something helpful could magically appear out of nowhere. But of course, it didn’t. He growled and smashed his back against the shelf. A book -the corner of a book actually- painfully fell on his head.

Grimmjow realized he might come to hate books and human bodies couldn’t fucking stand anything and got injuries and bruises from nothing – even if Ichigo insisted it was his fault when he burnt his hand, because he told him not to grab the hot teapot without a protection.

His is whole body wobbled and Tessai caught him from behind, preventing his disastrous fall.

“This should teach you to respect karma and karma will respect you.”

“What the fuck does Assassination Classroom have to do with this?” Grimmjow stood back on his feet and massaged his head. He was furious. “The fuck happened?”

Tessai showed him the culprit. “This book fell from the sky to punish you as you mistreated its brethren.”

“it fell because it was in precarious balance.” Grimmjow ripped it from Tessai’s hands. “What’s this about?”

Shakespeare. Again. Grimmjow felt the urge to rip the pages from that book one by one. What stopped him from his murderous intent, was the cover: he was sure he had never seen it on Ichigo’s shelf. He casually opened it: unlike the others, there were drawings near the words, like a manga but without the balloons.

Tessai massaged his chin. “This looks like a collection of many stories.”

However, Grimmjow wasn’t listening. He looked at the pencil drawings accompanying the words: it seemed a mix of books and manga, both things that Ichigo owned and liked. When he closed the book, he had already decided.

“This one.”

“Uhm… Grimmjow. I think that collection is meant for childr–“

“I have to give the money to the girl, right?”

“Yes, but–”

Grimmjow wasn’t listening to him. “I also need a ribbon. Do they sell them here?”

Tessai sighed and gave up. “I suppose the girl will wrap the book for you.”

There were too many people in that room.

Orihime started blabbering at him with a huge smile on her silly face until the Quincy managed to get her attention. He gave Grimmjow a questioning look. The shinigami with red hair glared too, but only because he was a hollow (and punched a hole in the stomach of the tiny shinigami once). What Grimmjow didn’t understand was the glare from the female human with black hair, but he didn’t care even for a single second.

The tiny Shinigami seemed to be over the fact he almost killed her twice and was an enemy of them. She sat next to him crossed both arms and legs and glanced at him.

“So, are you enjoying the party?”

“This is deadly boring.” There were Ichigo’s friends who monopolized his attention and his family was busy preparing everything. Yuzu sometimes appeared from the kitchen with something new and Ichigo’s attempts of making her relax always failed. “But I attended Aizen’s meetings. I can survive this.”

Rukia analyzed his physical response. Grimmjow was sunk into the sofa, the arms crossed, the eyebrows scowling, and the eyes pointing at nothing in particular. He probably wasn’t leaving only because of Ichigo.

“I’ve bought Ichigo a Chappy set. So he can make something special out of his banal room.” Grimmjow didn’t say anything. “Chappy is the most popular among the female shinigami, he should be honored.” Still nothing. “What did you buy him?”

Grimmjow finally looked at her. “A book.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. What kind of book?”

“With drawings.”

“Talking about drawings.” Rukia looked around, as suspicious as a thief, and shifted closer to Grimmjow; it looked like she was just waiting the right moment to bring up something. “I need an opinion on this.” Grimmjow didn’t understand from where she took out the birthday card she opened almost in front of his nose. “What do you think?”

There was an orange spot which pretended to be a human figure under a badly written _Happy Birthday Ichigo!_ and some other spots of color Grimmjow didn’t recognize.

“This is Ichigo.” Rukia remarked sounding like she believed there was no need to tell it.

“From what perspective this is Kurosaki?”

“I knew it!” Rukia put the card away the same way she took it out and Grimmjow again almost didn’t see it happening. “You’re like Renji! You know nothing about art!”

“That’s not art, that’s Kurosaki who’s been hit repeatedly by a collapsing building.”

“How dare you!”

As she raised her voice, Renji appeared in front of them. He was standing in what he thought was a menacing pose -arms crossed, back straightened, and chin raised as he looked down-, but Grimmjow didn’t consider him a threat and gave him a bored look.

“What’s happening here, Rukia?” While talking, Renji was looking at Grimmjow.

“Nothing is happening, Renji!” Rukia snarled. “We’re discussing here like normal human teenagers do!” Renji lost some of his self-confidence as Rukia yelled at him. “And you–“ She turned to Grimmjow again. “–you’re a match for Ichigo, for both of you are fools.”

“Your drawing skills are fool, midget.”

Rukia froze. She raised both hands in front of her, pointing at Grimmjow. “Hado 73, Soren–“

“Rukia, don’t!” Renji put himself in between them. “You’re into a gigai now, remember?!”

Grimmjow yawned. “I would gladly take the offer of a fight, but–“

“Hey.” Ichigo was attracted by the ruckus and what he found was the strangest of the situations: Grimmjow, Rukia and Renji on the sofa, with the latter who was almost splashed on Rukia in a desperate attempt of holding her down, while Grimmjow looked calm as if nothing was happening right on his side. “…guys, what the hell is going on here?”

“We’re having a discussion!”

“That ended being a discussion when you tried to throw a spell at him!” Renji pointed out only to receive a hit from Rukia on the forehead.

Ichigo looked at Grimmjow, who shrugged. “I did nothing.”

“But you said too much!” Rukia wriggled away from Renji but didn’t attack Grimmjow.

“Hey, no fights the day of my birthday!”

“I wasn’t going to fight, you fool! That was a punishment!”

“I can’t see the difference!”

Grimmjow stood up. “I’m going to drink something.” And left Ichigo behind arguing with Rukia, while Renji remained there, looking at them without knowing what to do.

Grimmjow didn’t feel like he could mingle with that place. It was filled of people he barely knew (some of them clearly didn’t trust him) and the only thing they had in common was Ichigo. It was like he was witnessing that nice and cozy scene from behind a glass he couldn’t go over. And Ichigo, of course, was on the other side.

“This sucks…” He muttered as he poured some juice into his glass. An arm leaned on his shoulders and he looked at his right: Isshin was smiling at him.

Grimmjow still didn’t know how to behave around Ichigo’s father. Not because he was his father, but because he had a bizarre personality which made him reveal only a bit of what Grimmjow believed lurked behind. He acted like an idiot but was sharp.

“How’s it going?”

“Well.”

“You don’t look like one who’s enjoying himself.”

“I’m not the one who should enjoy himself.”

A bit further, Ichigo was talking with his classmates. Even if he was arguing with the quincy, he seemed at ease. Grimmjow wondered if he felt like that when he was with him too or he just–

“Thank you for being here.” Isshin ruffled his hair and Grimmjow took a step aside, looking puzzled. “Ichigo appreciated it. He knows it’s quite difficult for you.”

“I had nothing better to do.” Grimmjow blurted out. “Being bored here or elsewhere it’s the same.” It really wasn’t but he didn’t want to expose himself to that man.

Isshin chuckled. “I guess so. Come here, it’s cake time.”

Humans had many strange habits -that probably Grimmjow had too when he was human, but he could barely remember what his name was- and taking photographs was one of them. Ichigo wasn’t really fond of them, but he let his friends press him in the middle of the circle they created around him to allow Isshin taking a photograph of them in front of the cake. Grimmjow felt a hand grabbing his wrist and looked at Yuzu who dragged him into the circle.

“You too, silly!”

Later, Yuzu would have complained because Grimmjow and Ichigo’s friend with the long red braid weren’t smiling.

After the cake (Ichigo ate almost all the cake left after everyone had a piece), the presents. Ichigo was embarrassed for reasons Grimmjow could only guess and not understand; if he was happy they brought him presents, why was he saying there was no need? Had he to keep the façade of his somber character? Or, incredibly, the one who headed into Hueco Mundo didn’t know how to react to open kindness? Grimmjow couldn’t tell.

He sat aside while Ichigo was opening his friends’ presents. To Grimmjow’s amusement, he had almost his same reaction in opening Rukia’s birthday card and was puzzled as he opened the little case with a bunny drawn on it.

“That was Rukia’s idea.” Renji underlined. “I had no room for any opposition.”

“You’ll be able to give some style to your boring room.” She added with a solemn nod.

“And what would be wrong with my room, huh?”

Orihime managed to stop them by shoving a huge reproduction of Kon in between them. “Me, Tatsuki, Sado-kun, Ishida-kun, Mizuiro and Keigo bought this for you! Me and Ishida-kun sewed it, while the others chose the presents inside!” Nobody knew where she took that thing out from.

Ichigo found different types chocolates and a videogame he confessed distractedly to Chad many weeks before he was putting away money for. He was grateful but also wondered where he would have put that reproduction of Kon which was almost as tall as him.

His family had already given him their present, mostly because Isshin couldn’t just wait and made Ichigo open it at midnight of his birthday.

“I think we’re done now. We can try the videogame–“

“Wait.” Karin stopped Keigo. “The grumpy cat here has a present too.” She raised Grimmjow’s right arm.

“Want to lose your hand, blackberry?”

“I want to see you try that.”

Grimmjow had a nicer relationship with Yuzu -he let her doing whatever she wanted- while was harsher with Karin, but that was their way of interacting. After the initial doubts she had about him, she ended up getting used to his presence in Ichigo’s life and got along with him without realizing it.

“Come on, give it to him. Don’t make him wait anymore.” Rukia tended her arm as if she was the one receiving the gift.

Ichigo glanced at her. “It’s obvious you can’t wait for it more than me…”

“Don’t be silly, Ichigo. I only have to check if that’s a treat for Soul Society.”

“It doesn’t seem to me…”

If Ichigo was surprised that Grimmjow showed up at his birthday, he really didn’t see a present coming. He didn’t even know what to expect, because he couldn’t imagine what Grimmjow thought as the perfect present for him.

“Here.” He pushed the present into his arms. Ichigo recognized a book and his curiosity grew: what in the world Grimmjow could have bought him? He unwrapped it and–

“Oh.” Ichigo looked at the cover. Many feelings caught him at once and he didn’t know if he was surprised, pleased, pissed off or each of them.

He felt his friends gathering behind him to spy on the cover. The first to speak was Ishida.

“I guess he won the prize for the most accurate present: a book for children.” And he wasn’t joking.

“Hey, what do you mean by that?”

Ichigo’s voice was covered by his friends.

“The drawings are cute!”

“You still like Shakespeare, Ichigo. I thought it was a phase from middle school.”

“Ah, it’s not a manga...”

“Why do you sound so disappointed, Mizuiro? It’s not a present for you.”

“Okay, but the videogame?”

Grimmjow didn’t know what was funny about the whole birthday party thing. But it was worth putting up with it only to witness Ichigo’s face in the moment he saw his present: his eyes glimmered and he was utterly amazed. And beautiful.

“I didn’t know you were so good at videogames.”

His friends left after dinner and the room felt a bit desolated after being crowded with many voices – mainly complaining because they were losing. Only Grimmjow remained, and he had no hurry to go back to Hueco Mundo.

“I play with your sister when you’re not around.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

As usual, Grimmjow was on his bed reading manga. Ichigo sat near him.

“I was wondering… why did you choose this book?”

Grimmjow put down the volume 8 of _Assassination Classroom_. “Because you like this Shakespeare and manga. That seemed perfect, his book with drawings.”

That naïve reasoning stunned Ichigo. He seriously expected some malicious throwback concerning him being childlike or not so involved in reading anymore, as Ishida underlined; on the contrary, Grimmjow put a serious thought in his search for a nice present; he didn’t know a single thing about Shakespeare but tried to find something suitable for him anyway.

“Thank you…” Ichigo observed the thick rigid cover, with a drawing of Puck, from _A midnight’s summer dream_. He opened it at a random page and started reading. It was the beginning of _The_ _tempest_. He didn’t even finish the first two pages that felt a weight on his left shoulder:  Grimmjow was reading with him.

“I want to know why you like this guy so much.” His voice sounded strange, annoyed.

After six pages, the weight intensified and Ichigo frowned. “Grimmjow, don’t lean on me that…” He turned to him, the small movement made Grimmjow slowly fall on Ichigo’s chest. He fell asleep. “…much.”

Ichigo leant his back against the wall and put Grimmjow’s head on his legs. He jolted, on the verge of awakening, but then relaxed again and put both arms around Ichigo’s waist. “The bed is too small. It’s uncomfortable for two, you know?” yet, he spoke in a low voice while touching his hair. He guessed Grimmjow didn’t find Shakespeare interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> Could you imagine how a deadly combo for Ichigo would be the trio Grimmjow-Yuzu-Karin? I think about that a lot.


End file.
